Magali Reus: Mustard at Stedelijk, Amsterdam
Design Consultant for Magali Reus
2016
Magali Reus presents Mustard, a new series of sculptures configured into a site-specific installation. By using complex techniques to process a variety of synthetic materials alongside fabrics and leather, the artist created sculptural forms that avoid direct references to existing objects but still evoke associations with saddles, motorcycles, or blankets. Her enlargement of (animal) forms contains elements of camp and the grotesque, imbuing the works with both a strongly physical and simultaneously unsettling presence. Their complex material composition and exuberant ornamentation repurpose decorative impulse into something that on first inspection appears functional or utilitarian.
Through this use of seemingly everyday objects and images, Reus’ work initially evokes a sense of familiarity. it is upon closer scrutiny that the hidden complexity of her works unfolds. Reus adopts an almost obsessive approach of layering and repetition of visual elements, with a resultant crisis of definition that leads to her works to emerge as more personified or simply abstract entities.
